Greenside Mines, Sticks Pass and Glencoyne, Cumbria. Wed 22 Sep 2004

Miserable overcast weather greeted us as we arrived at Glenridding. I drove a bit further north along the A592 to the Seldom Seen road and parked there. Eric and myself then walked back to Glenridding. We followed the YMCA access road up towards Sticks Pass and up the zig zag path by Greenside Mines. The weather was a constant drizzle but the cloud level was still higher up the fell. Instead of following the main path we wanted (or I wanted) to investigate the disused Chimney shown on the Ordnance Survey map at NY 352 175.

Eric and the Smelt Mill Chimney
(what's left of it).

The walk up to it followed the line of the collapsed flue, which used to carry the exhaust gasses from the Lead Smelt Mill of the mine. The flue is over 1.5km long and was needed to carry the poisonous gasses away from the inhabited valley below. By now we were in cloud and not much could be seen ahead. But then what's left of the chimney came into view. A square section base of stone and enough courses to leave about 1.5m standing. It would be nice to know how high it was originally. Heading further up the fell we reached a point just below the summit of Raise then traversed north to the Ski Tow. The first of two Ski buildings came in to view and was quite an impressive building with a beautiful slate roof. Obviously it was locked but looking through the window we could see a very nice and tidy interior with seats and ski gear etc. A little lower was another building but it was much smaller. Then continuing the traverse across a sodden fell-side we came to the Sticks Pass. Descending into Sticks Gill we cleared the cloud and could see again. In the area of mine working spoil heaps we found a spot with some shelter from the wind and stopped to eat our sandwiches. It was cold, wet and as uncomfortable as last week was enjoyable.
Then we walked over the pass of Nick Head and followed the narrow path down Glencoyne and on to the cottages at Seldom Seen. A short walk along the vehicle access took us back to the car and to our surprise nobody else had parked there.